[Matrix-SIG] Re: blitz++ vs. NumPy?

[P.S.Craig@durham.ac.uk]

Rob Hooft writes:
> 
> There is a lot of discussion about the subject, but I haven't seen
> anyone that was worried about their own extensions to NumPy that would
> need to be rewritten if NumPy would be redesigned.
> 
> I'd like to express this worry for my code.... The current design of 
> NumPy works great for me.
> 
.
.
.
> Am I really alone?
> 
> Rob
> 

Not at all, I should say. If I wanted to use C++, I wouldn't be using
python. I came to python in despair at the state of C++ and its
non-reusability/non-portability about 4-5 years ago. Of course C++ may
have improved since then?

I think that NumPy is pretty wonderful. It has a simple design, is
reasonably efficient, is (fairly) internally consistent, and mostly
interacts well with core python. The actual C code is sometimes a bit
obscure, but I have always viewed that as a temporary
matter. Moreover, about a year ago I worked out how to do more
flexible indexing (non-stride based) and still retain the efficiency
of the current implementation for code that doesn't need it. I just
haven't had the time to write the code.

One final point in defense of NumPy as it stands: I use
multi-dimensional arrays of arbitrary python Objects extensively in
some database related code and I would hate to lose that facility,
which I imagine would be the case with the Blitz++ approach.

While writing this, I have realised that I feel strongly enough that I
would want to save the existing code and build on it, under a
different module name if necessary.

Cheers,

Peter Craig

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